pixelsofmybrains

Who Am I?

2011-05-03T15:08:00.006+08:00

"Who Am I?" brings back memories of a 1998 Jackie Chan movie who lost his memory in a helicopter crash. Is that what defines who a person is? Memories and experiences? Dictionary.com defines personality as the sum total of the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual, or the organized pattern of behavioral characteristics of the individual.

So the question here is, are the physical, mental, emotional, and social characteristics of an individual defined since birth or are they a sum of events and experiences throughout that individuals life? Is there an original set of characteristics and behaviours that we fall back to or was that defined during childhood?

I believe our current characteristics and behaviours, our personality, is a direct consequence of the decisions and reactions that we have made in the past toward various events that have occured, be it directly affecting us or indirectly. These events range from simple epiphanies or big news such as Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. Events that get us thinking and convict us to change the way we live. For example in reference to Japan's earthquake disaster; to appreciate the land we live in and the people around us more, to be more charitable or to simply stop wasting our lives away and do something productive while we still can.

I've had friends who were afraid of change, or rather, the reason for the change. They do not want to change just because others have labeled them as such and such. If you change because you want to change the labels that people put on you, is that change good? Let's say some people label you as 'fat'. This makes you want to develop a healthy diet and active lifestyle to get into shape. Is this change good? Another example. People label you as a sarcastic @#$**. You start to realise how hurtful your comments are to others and decide to do something about it. This changes your personality. It changes your characteristic and behaviour. Does this mean you're changing who you really are and you're giving in to the expectations of the world? Are you losing your identity?

I believe not. One of my friends, Matt(not real name) once said:"If you met me 5 years ago, you would've met a completely different person." The 5 years ago version of Matt was a person who has gone through less 5 years of challenges and lessons in life, less 5 years of learnings and experiences and less 5 years of thought. Is that person 5 years ago Matt? Is the person I know today still Matt? The answer is yes, however, the latter Matt has gone through more than the former and I believe is a better person.

However, change does not always happen for the better. It can be a change for the worse. Some people give up easily when facing the challenges of life and slip into depression and self-pity resulting in addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex and other indulgences. This is because they have chosen to react that way. If they had chosen to react positively, to be calm and collected and taken appropriate steps to build their life back, we would see a different person - a person who changed for the better, not for the worse.

How we react to problems and issues and how we decide to live as a consequence of that is what defines our personality. It is what defines our character. It is what defines me.

I took a personality test online recently. I found that my results were different from the results of another test I took a few years back. I reckon this is a result of my learnings and my reactions toward events in my life. The test was a Jung Typology Test™ and my results were INTJ.

Qualitative analysis of your type formula

You are:
moderately expressed introvert
very expressed intuitive personality
moderately expressed thinking personality
moderately expressed judging personality

For more information on my test results:
http://typelogic.com/intj.html
http://keirsey.com/4temps/mastermind.asp

I'm Giving Up

2011-02-12T12:32:00.004+08:00

Giving up my life to the One who first gave it to me. You see, life becomes really hard at some point, especially when you're searching for the meaning of your existence, your purpose in life. Do you live for your A's? Do you live for that promotion you long for? Do you live for that special person you're hoping to find? Even as Christians, are your living to be the best most accurate prophet? The one who does the most good works? The one who sacrifices his time for others so he can be hailed as a great friend, a hero?

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3:

"¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

According to the passage, any good work, sacrifice, knowledge, wisdom is pointless without love. Are you hoping to be humanitarian of the year? Or are you really just sharing God's love? There's a fine line.

At some point, you'll find that happiness can be fake, love can be a charade, fun temporary, health plays tricks on you and wealth becomes something you despise. Human nature causes this. Selfishness, self-righteousness pride, deceit, impatience, envy, jealousy, unkindness, self-pity. All these ultimately leads to hatred when uncontrolled. Hatred, the ultimate tool to destroy relationships, create enemies and cause the most devastating wars in the history of mankind. What is man's answer to all these? The natural reaction to hatred is hatred. The catalyst of all war. People with good hearts/intentions try to hide their hatred under their skin and put on a mask outside, pretending to be okay. People without good hearts/intentions answer with outright hatred, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The rest of 1 Corinthians 13 says this:

^"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Love is all we need. If we have love, there will be no selfishness, self-righteousness, pride, deceit, impatience, envy, jealousy, unkindness, self-pity. Love conquers all. It was God's love for us that compelled Him to give us His Son, who gave His life for our sins. It is love that gives peace, joy, hope, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Like verse 13 says, the love is the greatest. My purpose in life is to love. What's yours?

What's Next Camp

2010-05-03T18:09:00.001+08:00

Had an awesome time at camp!
Click on this picture for the full album! :D

moving on

2010-04-30T02:54:00.001+08:00

chapter 2 of "LIFE" complete!

Words of Wisdom

2010-01-19T23:53:00.002+08:00

Confucious he say: "Frisbee after rain = mud on your face."

G.A.

2010-01-15T01:08:00.000+08:00

Genting. Awesome.

Wishy Washy

2009-12-24T01:59:00.002+08:00

I'm just too wishy washy. Shaped by the arcs of the mountains, flowing down slopes and falling off cliffs. The environment dictates my shape. I change to fit in to my environment. Without my own identity, without personality. What am I?

The Blue Sparkle

2009-10-19T11:50:00.003+08:00

A big thank you to the ppl who bought me this! :D

LTC!!!

2009-10-05T12:38:00.004+08:00

Just back from Leadership Training Camp (LTC) organized by the 14th INTIMA in The Pines Resort, Fraser's Hill. It was a nice place filled with lush greenery, rolling hills and wildlife. LTC started off at Sports Hall, INTI-UC on friday evening. We have short speeches from the camp OC, 14th INTIMA President, and Dr. Sia. We had some ice-breakers and then we were told to think of a group name and draw a group flag based on Greek mythology. My group picked Apollo, Son of Zeus and Leto, God of the sun and light, medicine, healing, archery, music, poetry and more.

Next day we departed from INTI-UC on three separate buses. I was on the third bus along with my group, which was the last to depart. And so we arrived at Fraser's Hill after a scary ascent up the hill marked by narrow roads and sharp turns whereby the bus driver had to use every inch he could to make the corners. At some points where the corners were sharper, you could say the bus was a few inches off from becoming a heap of metal and human bodies at the bottom of the hill. No wonder the camp committee asked us to sign the death liability form during registration! It was good to breathe in the cool, brisk air after so long. Fresh air is hard to come by living in the city.

After a quick lunch, we were brought to the hall and more ice-breaking games/activities. This was followed by the Treasure Hunt/ Amazing Race where each team were given tulips and a set of questions/clues. We also had to obtain two treasures. There were also a few stations where teams were given tasks to complete before moving on a la Amazing Race style. After probably 6-7km of walking/running, we were the first team to arrive back at The Pines Resort. I thought the treasure hunt was fun. =)

After washing up and settling down, we had dinner, followed by the INTIMA session. INTIMA session was, in other words, a council meeting with all club excos. It was okay, things were sorted out and issues settled, questions answered.

The next day, after breakfast we had SAO session. This session had many people falling asleep, due to the session being boring as well as being tired after all the activities the previous day. This was followed by lunch and a drama presentation by all the 10 groups. The drama presentation took too long in my opinion as each team weren't given a specific time limit. Some teams even took 20mins for their presentation! It took more than 2 hours for all 10 groups to finish their presentations. After that came the prize-giving ceremony, in which my group was announce to be the 1st runner-up! Congrats, Apollo! You guys (and girls) did a good job! In the end, there was a video/ photo slideshow presentation of the camp from day one. It failed because the projector died halfway, probably caused by a blown bulb. Oh well.

After that came the scary descent down the hill, during which i was asleep the whole time. In fact I was asleep pretty much the whole journey back to Nilai. Upon arrival in INTI-UC we had a photograph session which only included people from the our bus, the third bus because the other two buses were 30 mins behind and we were too tired to wait for them. And so ended LTC!

God's Amazing Love

2009-09-13T23:41:00.006+08:00

Hosanna!
Hosanna!
For God's grace is beyond all measure
His mercy overflows from the throne of heaven
Drenching His children with hope and love

His love needs no reason
For His love endures forever
It encompasses all
And surpasses all

He gives hope to the hopeless
Strength to the weak
Joy to the downcast
And comfort to the sorrowful

He delivers the anguished
He makes the poor rich
He heals the broken hearted
And He gives peace to the troubled

He puts songs of praise on my lips
And causes my feet to dance
He makes my heart cry out
And give glory to Him

For there is no one like You, O God!
You're incomprehensible, indescribable
Indefinable and transcendent
You alone deserve all the glory
Only You are worthy of my praise

O God of the heavens and the earth
Make me Your servant
Use me O Lord for Your glory
May Your will be done in my life

I give my life to You O Lord!
All I am is no more
For it is no longer I that live
But He who lives in me

This weekend, Bro. Shyju Mathew, a 23-year old preacher from Bangalore, India spoke at a series of meetings at my local church. He is a man of God who preaches as the Spirit leads and is very anointed. At every meeting, miracles and healings took place. Truly God is wonderful! He works in ways we cannot see and comprehend. I shed my first tears in many many years as I saw God's love at work before my eyes. A little girl who could barely walk properly because of her weak knees was able to run and jump after a miracle touch from God. She just couldn't stop smiling and praising God! After being prayed for, she was slain in the spirit and lay on the floor. She was still beaming as brightly as ever before while on the floor. My heart was simply touched and I was left in awe of how beautiful God's love for us is. Praise be to God!

Mee Kolok

2009-08-16T21:50:00.002+08:00

I just found out that the delicious "Sarawak Noodle" that I've been eating since 2006 was the Mee Kolok Maddie was talking about... lol

The Meaning of Life

2009-08-10T00:25:00.009+08:00

What is life?
What is it all about?
How does one live on,
surrounded by sorrow and grief,
in a world filled with people dying
And people hurting?

How can we not care?
How can we not love?
How can we not share
the joy that comes from above?

What is money?
Why do we crave for material things?
How does one obtain eternal happiness
when one's goal in life
is to purchase
all the temporary pleasures in the world?

How can we not care?
How can we not give
to those who are suffering
but instead spend lavishly on ourselves?

A simple smile,
an act of kindness.
We can change the world,
one small step at a time.
Let's spread God's love.

And this is our prayer:

Dear Lord,

Only You can mend the broken heart
And cause the blind to see
Erase complete the sinners past
And set the captives free
Only You can take the widows cry
And cause her heart to sing
Be a Father to the fatherless
Our Savior and our King
We will be Your hands, we will be Your feet
We will run this race for the least of these
In the darkest place, we will be Your light
We will be Your light.

Amen.

Now Listening: Hillsong United - Solution

City Revival Charity Hunt

2009-08-01T21:57:00.002+08:00

Whee.... I went treasure hunting today... It's been awhile since I last hunted so I was a bit excited about it =) The hunt is organised by City Revival Community Services Berhad and Time Out Solutions (A treasure hunt and event organising company). The hunt is a drive hunt, requiring a team of 4 people to drive around a pre-determined path to answer questions by finding signages that befit the clues found in the questions. The hunt was split into two categories; regulars, and non-regulars(novices), to be fair to those who do not take part in treasure hunts regularly or who are newbies. My sisters' team and my team were under the 'novice' category.

Woke up at around 7am and then Steven picked me and my two sisters up to Regalia Business Centre, near Summit mall. My sisters joined Steven and his wife in Steven's car and my team consisted of me, Arun and Samson; short of one person. Samson drove, Arun navigated and I was the passenger behind. After a short final briefing, we were flagged off at 8.10am sharp. (was supposed to be 8.00am) We were given a set of tulips(directional guides) and a set of 30 questions to answer, as well as 4 treasures to purchase for the children's home and 5 road safety questions (made compulsory by the government). Anyway it didn't matter whether you answered the road safety questions correctly as they did not carry any points. Treasures were items that you need to identify and purchases by cracking the riddle that was given. So in total we had 4 riddles to crack.

The hunt took us around Regalia Business Centre, then to Taipan, and then we had to submit our treasures to the City Revival Girl's Home in USJ11 before heading to SS15. After a short time in SS15 we headed towards Bandar Puteri, Puchong. The business centres there had so many signages it gave us a big headache trying to look for the answer. At this point we were trying to answer all the questions as fast as we could as we had already used up 4 hours to answer 20 questions. So there was an hour left to answer 10 questions! RUSH RUSH RUSH!

We managed to complete the questions at about 12.45pm. OH NO! We now have to 'fly' to the finish line - Bukit Jalil Golf and Country Resort. On the way there we saw the scene of an accident on our side of the road. It wasn't a very serious accident but it caused vehicles to slow down and avoid the cars involved in the accident. Thank God it just happened so the jam wasn't that bad yet. And so we reached our final destination at 1.05pm just 5 minutes short of 5 hours. After handing in our answer sheet, we had lunch/high tea which was delicious (probably because we were hungry, the food wasn't that good). After waiting for a long time, debriefing commenced. They started with a short picture slideshow of us hunting and then proceeded to giving us the answers for all the questions as well as the treasures. Shortly after, we had the prize-giving ceremony. And our team was first to be called out!(Which means we got the last prize. haha) We were 18th in a field of about 44 cars. Not bad considering we only have three people in our team and Samson was hunting for the first time (Arun and I took part in the last charity hunt few years back, and that was our first. So we were a bit rusty as well... tee hee.) Our prize consisted of 4 ETSU exercise mats, 4 Eagle Ranch goodie bags and a rice cooker for a total of RM780. We haven't decided what to do with the rice cooker yet haha. The top prize for 'novice' category included 4 Sony Ericsson mobile phones(w810i), free stay at Eagle Ranch(I forgot how many nights, probably 1 or 2), 4 etsu exercise mats and a Munchy's hamper which totals about RM3000! (I want the phone )=) The same prizes were given for the 'regulars' category.

After a long, tiring hunt, we all went home content and happy (at least we won something. haha) and feeling good because we've contributed towards the children's home through having fun in this treasure hunt. I hope they'll start making this event an annual thing so I can take part again next year! =)

Finals Coming Up

2009-07-29T16:16:00.000+08:00

Test today was so so...

sigh.... finals coming up... Two subs I'm taking this sem Quality Assurance & Management, and Project Management are like totally blank in my mind... GOD HELP ME!!!

*dies*

70's Show

2009-07-26T15:08:00.000+08:00

70's show was a blast!

There was fun, games, cool costumes, dancing, funky music and even the Malaysian Elvis himself! His name is HT Long and he was the speaker for the night. (He's Ps. Christopher Long's elder bro!)

The night started with a classic ice-breaker... Form a circle and reach across to grab two different person's hands. Then untangle yourselves. :D

Next up was worship!
The worship featured groovy, funky songs like:
1. Hillsong - Joy In The Holy Ghost
2. The Parachute Band - Jesus Is Real
3. Unknown Artist - Power To Ya
4. Hillsong - With All I Am

Arun on electric guitar.

I played bass. =)

"All God's people sing hallelujah!"

After worship was sharing by HT Long. He talked about the birth of rock and roll and the history of music. As well as giving us his testimony of how he got to know the Lord. Finally he gave us this reminder:"Don't stop listening to christian music!" He also sang the song 'He Is My Everything', rock 'n' roll version xD He had some very cool dance moves too!

After that we had a dance performance by the girls...

Last but not least we had the best dressed prize-giving ceremony! Two candidates were picked from the guys and two from the girls.
And the nominees for best dressed are:

Theresa, Sheryl(My sis), Erwin(me!) and Richard! Woohoo!
And the winners are Sheryl and Richard! Hehe.

Richard's pants were just awesome. He actually got some tight pants and then asked his aunt to sew on those flappy white stuff at the bottom... Kewl!

After all that fun and excitement, we finally chillaxed and had our supper(dinner) :D
More pics below...

My First Ultimate Disc

2009-07-20T11:52:00.000+08:00

My first ever ultimate disc. It's called 'mydisc' and is made locally by (Global Sports Partners). =D I emailed GSP and wanted to browse through a collection at their office but they weren't open today. So, they told me some discs were available at Perry's Kedai Runcit in USJ4. So i promptly drove my car out to the shop. As I looked around in the shop. I could only see 1 disc. And it's pink in colour. So I was like:

Me:" Excuse me. Is this the only disc left?"
Shopkeeper:"Do you see any other disc around here?"

I got my answer. Haha. So I bought it la no choice. Then I went to a small field behind my house to practice some throws. After a few throws I found that I could throw a decent forehand flick now wheee! Tried to throw a hammer as well but didn't turn out so well. :P Ok lah still beginner ma.

First day of ownership and already some scratches on my disc. Haha. The field had some rocky patches and some of my throws landed there. Sigh. Oh well.

BTW, for those of you who don't know what ultimate is, here's a brief explanation.

"Ultimate is a fast-paced, non-contact sport played by both women and men of all ages. The object is to score points by throwing the disc to your teammates until one of them catches it in the opponent’s endzone. The playing area is like a football pitch except the scoring is done in endzones (like American football) instead of goals. The Defense is doing all it can to keep the Offense from catching the disc. Any time a throw is not caught inbounds, whether it goes out of bounds, hits the ground, is knocked down, or is intercepted a change of possession takes place (called a “turnover”). A player cannot run with the disc. All progress must be made in the air."
(Taken from www.ultimatemalaysia.com )

And here's a vid containing highlights from ultimate tournaments so you can see what this sport is all about. =)

@#$%^&*

2009-07-16T14:43:00.000+08:00

Argh! Stupid lecturer! Just goes on and on boasting about his past experiences and achievements! Why are you wasting our time listening to you repeat your stories over and over again? Why do you always think you're right? Why do you not listen to your students(me)? Why do you pretend you can't hear me when the whole class can? Why do you think you're above others? Why do you spend half an hour on ONE friggin slide!?!?? Why are you wasting our time and money!??? The best part is you're christian 'cause I saw your E-Bible on your lappy's desktop and your hp ringtone is "Jesus loves me this I know". What an abhorrent and atrocious testimony you are to others.

I pray my juniors get another lecturer for QA and Project Management. Good riddance.

My First Post

2009-07-15T02:01:00.000+08:00

Hey. I really don't know why i started this blog. But now that I have, hopefully someone will get me a decent camera so i can freeze some moments in my life worth remembering =).

UNTIL THEN, expect long lines of words and more words that will bore you out of your mind...

Btw, since I started staying in nilai my life has changed a lot... made many new friends and met lotsa interesting people, as well as getting closer to those I already know. Late night mamak/cc sessions, mondays(official sports day for me) and CF, cg, nk sessions, and pool has grown in size in my life's pie chart. I'm glad I decided to stay here. However here's where the problem begins... There is never enough time to spend with all your friends and sometimes they feel left out when you tell them what you did the night before without them and stuff like that. Regardless, i think I'm having fun here and let's hope it stays that way =D